1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to missions and, in particular, to managing missions. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for managing different types of systems used in missions.
2. Background
Electronic warfare (EW) missions and cyber missions are examples of types of missions that may be performed. These types of missions are often performed by different countries or organizations. The targets of these missions may be communications systems, radar systems, computer networks, and other assets.
Electronic warfare missions involve the use of the electromagnetic spectrum, directed energy, or both. Electronic warfare missions may be performed to deny opponents access to using the electromagnetic spectrum for things like communications, detection, or other purposes. Electronic warfare missions can be performed from different locations, such as air, sea, land, and outer space by manned or unmanned systems.
Cyber missions involve performing operations with respect to networks such as local area networks, wide area networks, the Internet, and other types of networks. Cyber missions may be performed to obtain information, change information, insert information, or other suitable operations. The information may be, for example, data, programs, voice data, images, videos, or other types of information.
Managing systems for performing missions may be more difficult than desired. Different vendors or sources may provide the systems for performing electronic warfare and cyber missions. Different tools and applications are often present for operating these systems. Further, the user interfaces for different systems may vary greatly from one system to another system. As a result, operators for the systems require training on the different systems. As a result, only certain operators may operate selected systems for which those operators have training. This situation may require more expense and time than desired to hire and train operators to use these systems.
Thus, coordinating the performance of electronic warfare missions and cyber missions is not straightforward. Currently, the coordination requires the use of both tools and applications with which the different operators must be familiar in order to perform missions. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that take into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues.